Tottenham Hotspur: Breaking Down AVB's Inaugural Season at White Hart Lane

After some uncertainty on who would succeed Harry Redknapp at Tottenham, it has been confirmed that Andre Villas-Boas will be the man to lead Spurs next season.

B/R's Will Tidey has already discussed the difference between last year's Villas-Boas and this year's Villas-Boas in his recent article on the Portuguese manager, but here we'll delve into what exactly Villas-Boas has to do from now till the end of the season to be successful.

From transfers to tactics and everything in between, we'll be addressing every concern under the sun related to Villas-Boas' appointment and his perceived weaknesses and strengths.

So what are you waiting for? Dive on in, and don't forget to share your thoughts afterwards.

Transfers: Outgoing

Let's be honest here: Andre Villas-Boas has a long summer ahead of him.

Luka Modric wants out and is reportedly on the verge of a move to Real Madrid. Hamburg, Rafael van der Vaart's former club, are very interested in reacquiring their ex-star attacking midfielder. And Tottenham don't appear to be any closer to permanently signing Emmanuel Adebayor from Manchester City.

We'll lay out the players who should be AVB's top transfer targets in a later article, but for now, AVB's aim should be to not change too much at once.

There are already reports that AVB is shopping VDV and pulling Tottenham out of the race for Adebayor—such reports won't please Tottenham's players or endear him to Spurs fans.

This doesn't mean that AVB should not try to put his stamp on his squad. By all means, it is hoped that he will bring in a number of players who fit his system and style of play, and sell those who don't fit.

But we'd recommend a "from the ground up" approach, rather than a "top down" approach. Tottenham have had many fringe players on their books for a number of seasons now, and now is the time to sell them off.

Guys like Sebastien Bassong, Jermaine Jenas, David Bentley and Giovani Dos Santos ought to be shopped before bigger name players like VDV are. Once a few of them are sold or sent on loan, and AVB makes a couple of positive transfer acquisitions, big-name players like VDV can be sold.

But it makes little sense to get rid of someone like VDV without knowing for sure that an equally talented but more fit player will be joining the club in his place.

Transfer: Incoming

Like we already said, we won't delve too deep into the pros and cons of acquiring particular players here, but rather we'll outline what we believe AVB's transfer plan should be with regards to incoming players.

The biggest priority for AVB has to be acquiring quality forwards. Last year, Tottenham were way too reliant on Emmanuel Adebayor for goals, and they paid for their reliance on him in the latter stages of the season when his form started to wane.

Now, without Adebayor, and with Louis Saha released, Tottenham have just Jermain Defoe up front, and for a team hoping to crack the top four once again, that's just not acceptable. AVB will need to acquire at least one quality striker, and either promote a player like Harry Kane to the first team or retain VDV.

Next, with Modric's departure practically a forgone conclusion, AVB will need to plug the hole created by his departure. Luckily, AVB already has just the player in mind: Joao Moutinho, the Portuguese attacking midfielder who player under AVB at Porto and shone brightly at Euro 2012.

However, acquiring Moutinho will not be easy. According to ESPN, Manchester United are also in hot pursuit and know very well that Moutinho could be the exact piece they're missing to contend once more for the EPL title.

Finally, on defense, AVB will be keen to wrap up Jan Vertonghen's signing ASAP. Vertonghen and Ajax are currently locked in a dispute that seems to be holding the move up, but AVB remains as keen as ever to sign the player, knowing that he is just the player needed in his system at Tottenham.

These three issues will be the first priorities for AVB. Afterwards, adding depth on the wings, especially if Pienaar is sold, will be important, but it remains to be seen how much money, if any, will be left over once AVB has made the necessary purchases to strengthen the core of the team.

Tactics: Formation

Looking back at AVB's time with Chelsea and Porto, it's clear that his formation is 4-3-3, and that he has no intention of changing it.

There are pros and cons to bringing this formation to Tottenham.

For one, it decreases the need for a big number of strikers, since only one can be utilized. Of course, that one needs to be a big, strong centre-forward rather than a small, quick poacher, effectively relegating Defoe back to the role of super-sub with Spurs.

Secondly, this striker could really bring out the best of some of Tottenham's midfielders. Guys like Tom Huddlestone and Sandro, who previously were restricted by Redknapp to playing purely defensive roles, will now be converted to box-to-box midfielders and asked to contribute on offense.

Especially in Sandro's case, this prospect is very exciting.

However, on the negative side, it is a formation that really has no room for a guy like Rafael van der Vaart, who operates as a second striker. AVB could experiment with VDV as an attacking midfielder, but Gylfi Sigurdsson's acquisition likely means that VDV will be sold without being experimented with.

Additionally, the formation puts a great deal of responsibility on the club's wingers to create offensive opportunities, which isn't exactly Gareth Bale nor Aaron Lennon's greatest strength. Furthermore, if Pienaar and Dos Santos leave, Tottenham have little to no depth to backup their two starting wingers.

Tactics: Defense

All sorts of excuses can be made for the failing of AVB's tactics at Chelsea, but at the end of the day, AVB's high offside line was disastrous at Chelsea, and lead some of the EPL's best defenders to concede goals on a regular basis to some of the EPL's weakest teams.

At Tottenham, AVB will be gifted with more attacking players, especially if Jan Vertonghen completes his move to Spurs, but AVB must learn to be wiser with his defensive strategy and avoid trying to implement a high defensive line like the one he introduced at Chelsea.

Simply put, the quality of strikers in the EPL is too high for such a simple strategy to prove continuously effective.

It may have worked in the Portuguese Liga where good strikers are rare and Porto dominate possession regularly, but in the EPL where every team has a half-decent striker capable of timing his runs, a high offside line is just way too dangerous.

In its place, AVB ought to focus on exploiting the pace of Kyle Walker and the set piece capabilities of Vertonghen.

Ezekiel Freyers' acquisition could also strengthen Tottenham offensively if AVB decides that Benoit Assou-Ekotto doesn't do enough for his system. And of course, Danny Rose could be awarded more playing time, and as a natural attacking midfielder he'd provide a great deal of offense from left-back.

If there's one lesson we hope AVB learned from his time at Chelsea, it's this one. His approach to the defensive side of football will really play a big role in determining how successful he is at Tottenham.

Tactics: Offense

At Porto, the one-two punch of Hulk and Radamel Falcao guided Porto to unprecedented success. At Chelsea, AVB hoped that Juan Mata and Fernando Torres would form that one-two punch, but they never did, and both were moved around and even benched (in Torres' case) over the course of the season.

We do not yet know who will be brought in to play striker at Tottenham next season, but whoever he is will likely determine how successful Tottenham are next season.

AVB's 4-3-3, as already stated, is extremely reliant on a productive, successful CF, and the quality of the CF could be the difference between breaking records and being on course for one of the club's worst seasons of all time (see: Falcao and Torres).

Tottenham have been and will be Bale's team. He's still young, always improving, and, despite all the haters, remains Spurs' best offensive weapon.

If Tottenham can give him a good strike buddy, like Adebayor was, they'll have a real shot at a top four spot once again. If not, then Tottenham and AVB will have no one but themselves to blame when the club fails to make the Champions League.

The Competition

The EPL is frequently commended for being the most competitive league in the world, and next year we'll likely see just how competitive it is.

Chelsea's spending spree has already installed them as one of the favorites for a top four berth, and many believe that a few more signings will put Chelsea in position to challenge for the title. There is no reason to believe that Manchester United or Manchester City will enter 2012-13 willing to settle for anything less than the EPL title either.

Arsenal, even if they lose Robin van Persie, have already shown their incredible ability to overcome adversity to record consistent results, and the addition of Olivier Giroud and Lukas Podolski will surely help them achieve their goals.

Finally, Newcastle are looking to build on last season's success with cheap but smart and intelligent transfers, and Liverpool are investing in Brendan Rogers' new project at Anfield.

In other words, eight good teams will be vying for a spot in the top four. And who knows, Sunderland and Everton could make a run for a Europa League spot with the right signings.

AVB's competition will ensure that his debut season with Spurs is no walk in the park, even if he'll be under less pressure to consistently win than he was at Chelsea.

Prediction: TBD

At this point, there just isn't enough to go off of to make any sort of prediction on how AVB's season will go. 

We can hypothesize about how much he's learned from his Chelsea experience, but we won't really know until we see Tottenham's first three to five games and are able to identify specific trends and styles in the players' play.

The good thing is that this time AVB has no excuses. There will be no articles written about player power or about AVB having to adjust to the pace of the EPL.

This stint will break-or-continue AVB's managerial career. If he proves himself once again unable to lead an EPL team to success, he can forget about the Mourinho comparisons; they'll be dead and gone.

However, if he can achieve a top four finish with Spurs, and maybe a decent run in the FA Cup, Carling Cup or Europa League, he'll have a good future ahead of him.

We, the Spurs fans here at B/R, wish him the best.

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